Chapter 2 The Wizard (2)

As Lynn emerged from the innermost room, he arrived at another room located towards the outer section of the house. This room had a courtyard.

The courtyard had an open top, allowing the cold, white sunlight to filter through and fall onto the four small flowerpots placed at the bottom. Each pot had a miniature plant resembling a honeysuckle.

These plants were small, with only a few round leaves and thin stems holding a massive bud at the top. The pale pink surface of the buds were still closed, with only a small slit in each, and covered in glistening dewdrops.

Lynn took out a glass bottle and a glass stick. Using the glass stick, he touched the dewdrops on the bud, which were then attracted to it. He then inserted the glass stick into the bottle, and slowly collected all the dewdrops.

All the dewdrops from the four flowers were collected, forming a thin layer at the bottom of the glass bottle.

This was the Purple Phoenix Flower, a material used in making potions.

It liked being in direct sunlight but also preferred a cool and damp temperature, making its cultivation quite challenging.

It took about three months to cultivate one Purple Phoenix Flower. During this period, the dewdrops that gathered on the petals every day contained excellent magic conducting effects, and were often used by Angley as an additive in experiments. They were also a level 0 material used in making potions.

All of this knowledge was recorded in the notebook that Angley gave to Lynn. The notebook was a reward for Lynn’s assistance in cultivating magical plants and tending to daily chores.

It was handwritten and contained various fragmented wizarding knowledge, including information on potions, magical plants, and some general wizarding knowledge such as mutation studies, bloodline studies, and anatomy studies.

Although these pieces of knowledge were incomplete and lacked structure, they opened a window to a new world for Lynn. Holding the book, Lynn stood by the window of this new world, eagerly anticipating the beautiful scenery of this new world.

Gurgle, gurgle.

In a large iron pot, a yellow and green food that looked like porridge was being stirred with a large iron spoon.

Although it didn’t look very appetizing, the aroma was not as repulsive as the appearance suggested.

Thanks to the culinary talents of the Chinese people in his previous life, Lynn considered himself to have some skill when it came to cooking. Although the ingredients he had on hand were humble, he was able to make them taste somewhat decent through his own creative combinations.

After all, it was his own dinner he was preparing. As a chef, the only benefit was being able to indulge in the delicious food before anyone else. He always enjoyed this privilege, relishing the chance to taste the fruits of his labor earlier than anyone else.

Lynn scooped out three lumps of food from the pot that resembled sweet potatoes. They had been stewing for too long and had turned into an unrecognizable mush. The taste was similar to that of sweet potatoes— sweet and sticky, which suited his personal preference.

He then grabbed four leafy greens from the pot and added them to his bowl before finally placing the only meat bone left in the pot into his bowl. He wasn’t sure what kind of animal it came from— Angley had brought it back two days ago. It looked a bit like a rat, but was as big as a cat.

Angley, being a wizard, didn’t eat these kinds of things. He claimed that as a wizard, he didn’t need to eat. It wasn’t until Lynn noticed oil stains around Angley’s mouth that he realized the old man had secretly been enjoying his own delicious meals in his room!

Lynn poured the food from the iron pot into a bucket and carried it to the basement. As he walked down the hallway, the sound of the bucket and spoon clanking against each other echoed through the hallway. People locked up in rooms on either side of him brought their bowls to the door, hungry for the meager food offering.

There were only two meals a day here, and they were mostly soup, porridge and greens. Meat was scarce and only a hint of oiliness was present. If they didn’t drink a lot of it, they wouldn’t be able to stave off hunger. Most of their time was spent lying on the ground, trying to conserve energy.

Lynn used a spoon to scoop the soup into bowls, responding to the constant pleas for extra helpings. He distributed all the food in the bucket to everyone in the hallway before returning to the kitchen to finish his own dinner.

As he ate, a line of black text appeared in the corner of his vision.

“Daily task completed: Cooking (1) Cook a complete pot of food.”
“Completion: Qualified”
“Reward: 5 general experience points.”

It was strange that the daily cooking task required more than just cooking a good pot of food.

Once the food was cooked, it was necessary to eat it all in order to complete the mission objective. This put an end to Lynn’s idea of randomly cooking a large amount of food just for the sake of earning rewards.

He stood up and washed the pots, pans, and dishes before returning to his room. Sitting on his bed, he crossed his legs and began to meditate.

Closing his eyes, he started his daily meditation routine. As he entered a meditative state, he perceived numerous dots of light surrounding him in the pitch-black environment. These dots of light were of different colors, such as red, blue, white, purple, and cyan. They were the elements that floated freely in the air.

However, Lynn didn’t need these elements. Elements were the partners used in casting spells, but what the wizard needed for meditation was spiritual power.

Among the plethora of dots of light, there were some that were rare in quantity, hovering in the air like small specks of blue dust. Lynn began to meditate, constructing the earth ring in his mind using the construction method of the Earth Ring Meditation technique.

Although earth rings appeared to be simple, each ring had a vast amount of exquisite and profound runes and circuits, making the meditation process quite challenging. Luckily, Lynn had already gone through the most challenging part of constructing the first ring. It took him nearly a week to construct the first one initially. Subsequently, constructing each ring became much easier.

In his mind, the seventh ring was slowly taking shape. 

As time passed by, every second and every minute seemed to blur in his meditative state.

The light from the candle on the table in the room flickered slightly.

Finally, after an unknown amount of time, the seventh earth ring finally coalesced in his mind! Suddenly, those small specks of blue light dots hovering in the air seemed to be drawn to something with great force.

A surge of madness flooded his mind, but soon his brain cleared. After a moment, the feeling of clarity slowly faded away, and Lynn opened his eyes, feeling refreshed and invigorated.

His brain was now much clearer, including his memory, and he knew that this was the positive effect of a slight increase in mental strength gained in a short amount of time.

‘Lynn

Level: Level 2 (1/100)

Physical Fitness: 1.32
Mental Strength: 2.0

Mastery:
—Earth Ring Meditation (7%)

General Experience Points: 80’

His mental strength had increased by 0.1, which might not seem like much, but it was equivalent to one-tenth of an average adult’s total mental strength.

His meditation speed had also increased significantly, and this time he had only taken two days to meditate up to the seventh earth ring. At this rate, meditating up to a hundred rings didn’t seem as difficult as he had imagined.

Outside, the moon was high in the sky, indicating that it was already late at night. Lynn got up, poured himself a glass of water, and drank it. Standing by the window, he gazed outside.

The moon was like a silver disc, large and round, hanging in the night sky. In the center of the moon, there was a silver-white woman, as if sculpted from marble, with her hands crossed over her chest. 

According to Angley, that was a god— a god imprisoned by wizards on the moon.

Lynn leaned against the windowsill and his gaze gradually shifted from the sky to the outside. Tall and dense pine trees stood one after another, and through them, he could faintly see the outline of a small town in the distance. In the darkness of the night, the eaves and spires of the buildings formed black shadows.

As he gazed out, Lynn’s eyes gradually became unfocused, and he began to recall his past.

A year ago, he awakened to his innate wisdom, but he was still in a foggy and dazed state. Memories from two different lifetimes intertwined, making it difficult for him to distinguish reality from fiction. He spent several days lying in bed before finally piecing it all together.

This was a world similar to the early stages of the Industrial Revolution, but with distinct class differences and extraordinary powers.

Wars, plagues, and famines had swept through the land one after another. Just as Lynn was getting used to life in this world, he and his family were swept up in a wave of refugees heading south. They had heard that things were better on the other side of the border at Bangor Port, where there was no famine and they could even take a ship to other continents not affected by war or famine.

During this arduous journey, Lynn also encountered knights who possessed extraordinary powers that were only mentioned in books. Those knights with bodies that had surpassed the limits of the human body, like ferocious beasts, besieged the monsters born of the plague.

It was precisely because of the intense battle that the refugee convoy was scattered, and Lynn became separated from his family amidst the chaos. Before he could even find them, he and a small group of refugees were taken captive by Angley.

That had been going on until today.

In this chaotic era, it was not uncommon for people to go missing, and few cared about it except for their loved ones. 

Lynn was worried about the safety of his parents and siblings, but he did not dare to ask Angley too much about it. 

Surviving was already a great fortune for him, and he had obtained the key to unlocking his extraordinary powers from Angley. Compared to those who had become experimental subjects on the operating table, he considered himself to be lucky enough.

Lynn’s gaze turned melancholic as he let out a soft sigh, wondering whether his parents and siblings had arrived safely at Bangor Port.

He had expressed his concerns about his family to Angley, but he was coldly rejected. Angley told him that his experiments had reached a critical juncture, and after the experiment was over, he would take Lynn to find his family. 

However, Angley also warned Lynn that the lifespan of wizards far exceeded that of ordinary people. Through alchemical transformation, blood transfusion, and transformation rituals, wizards had many ways to extend their lives.

In their long lives, family members were just a small part of their journey. 

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